Adebayo Faults Tinubu’s Student Loan, Calls For Better Governance

Prince Adewole Adebayo, Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader and 2023 presidential candidate, has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s student loan programme, arguing that reducing education costs would make loans unnecessary.
“I don’t agree with them on their student loan, because all you need to do is bring the cost of education down, and an average person will be able to go to school without needing a loan,” he said.

Adebayo described the Tinubu administration as a presidency, not a government, focused on political expansion rather than governance. “If we are to be fair to the Tinubu government, we should talk about the Tinubu presidency, not the Tinubu administration, because there’s no administration going on,” he stated.

He accused the administration of prioritising political coalitions over addressing public resentment and economic challenges.

He noted that Tinubu’s team has failed to produce effective budgets. “They have not been able to write a single good budget. They are reaching two budgets now and the only difference is that the one that came after is worse than the one before,” Adebayo said. He stressed that employment is key to tackling poverty, but the administration lacks focus on this.

Adebayo further criticised the administration for playing “political chess” while neglecting urgent issues. “What you see dominating them and the focus of their existence is more power in enlarging their political coasts, enlarging business empires that support that political empire, and continuing to play chess while the house is burning,” he said.

However, he praised Tinubu’s visit to Katsina to meet soldiers fighting insurgency, noting it boosted military morale. “The decision of the president to go to Katsina as commander-in-chief, to talk to the service chief and our men and women in uniform, gladdened my heart to no end,” he said. He urged more such actions and less politicking.

Adebayo warned that any aspiring president, including himself, must prioritise good governance, which he claims is absent under Tinubu. “Anybody who wants to be president, like me and others, must be prepared to give good governance to the people. If the person who is there; whom you want to defeat and take over from, is giving good governance, somehow you’ll be happy. But if he’s not giving good governance, you’ll be very angry and that is the situation we’ve seen,” he added.